Luccia Gray posts some lovely pictures (amongst loads of other great stuff) but the one that caught my imagination recently was on the Mosque in Cordoba. Initially it was the pictures that got me; the quality of the light in Spain makes a Brit with grey-sky-phobia, well, green with envy. Actually it’s more sepia with sadness but that’s another matter.

Then I read the post, about the chequered history of the conversion of the Church/Mosque/Church. Fabulous. And it put me in mind of a curio of a building on the borderline between the wealthy City of London and its down at heel neighbour, Tower Hamlets, which has as bizarre a history as the Cordoba Mosque. It too is a mosque. Now. But it hasn’t always been. This building has a history that speaks of a tolerance, which is, or at least seems to be, at odds with the world we are told exists, especially in this part of London.

First a little warning; this blog will become a tad political here. It pigeonholes me, I know, but I hope the context helps you understand why I enjoy the fact that this little brick box exists.

Today, the headlines appear to make one or other religion the source of most of today’s major flash points. Before that it was the cold war and a clash of economic ideologies; further back it was fascism v communism v democracy; before that the Colonial powers slicing up the globe and arguing over the size of the slice.

I have long thought that today’s focus on faith (or indeed the lack of it) when analysing conflicts is missing the point. Most conflicts aren’t principled: they are about power. Gaining it, keeping it, rarely but occasionally sharing it. Was the cold war about ideals, about which way of life was better or was it about maximising the areas of influence of each side to ensure the continuance of the prevailing elites? The Colonial powers? Were they in it to ensure a freer, fairer world, to ensure free trade would benefit all? Or were they, in truth, just arguing that their method of subjugation was better than someone else’s? Whatever the wrapper, the ideal, it’s all about power. Today’s convenient wrapper is religion; and still it is about power.

Today the area around Brick Lane and Mile End Road is predominantly Muslim – largely of Bangladeshi/Pakistani heritage. This area, which backs hard onto the City’s high rises via the gentrified Spittalfields market, is now famous for its curry houses, the gaudy fabric market and some of the worst urban poverty in London. It is a pot pourri of humanity, an edgy area that keeps you thinking as you walk around. It also houses some fantastic artistic communities. It is febrile, volatile and mobile. It always changed and adapted, save for the one sad constant of poverty.

That has been, of course, the burden of the eastern parts of Northern hemisphere cities; a function of geography and meteorology – the westerly winds that circle the earth make living in the east the poor relation to the other areas around the cities. They have always been the smelliest, the most polluted areas – foul miasmas prevail and, of course, miasmas were long thought to carry the worst diseases.

London is no exception and the East End has as rich a history of the poorest, usually the immigrant groups, starting out there until they move on.

In the East End there were the Huguenots (of whom I am proudly a descendant), turfed out of Catholic France following the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes or some such; then the Jews, displaced from Eastern Europe, the Irish escaping the infamous famines; and now the Subcontinent’s diaspora, with many and varied others mixing in with the Fagins, the Krays and other low-lifes – a trend that continues right up to today (I won’t mention names but there is this particularly gobby, self aggrandizing politician, who, a few years ago, sought to exploit the discontent here for his own grubby ends, displacing the existing Labour MP in a real dirty tricks campaign: *sigh*).

Generally whoever moves in rubs along with the then current incumbents; even when the Oswald Mosely thugs sought to smash the Jewish groups in the 1930s they couldn’t – the local community spirit was too strong. To me this melting pot of people, cultures, races, languages and skin tones is what makes London the best city in the world. There is nowhere else like it.

It’s not perfect – far from it – how could it be – but it says a lot (to me at least) that when Nigel Farage’s UKIP are gaining a toehold elsewhere, the one place – where you’d think they’d be massive support, giving the mixture of races, the strain on local resources that immigration can bring etc – to send him and his kind packing was London.

And this tolerance, uneasy as it can be with the range of nutters that you find everywhere spouting their nonsense, is best exemplified by the Brick Lane Mosque on the junction of Brick Lane and Fournier Street.

It’s not a grand building; in fact it’s a bit of a brick shed and it’s been tinkered with over the years but I love its history. It was built in 1743 as a Huguenot church, one of the new churches that sprung up after the Huguenots arrived – Spittalfields was the centre of the silk weaving industry.

By the nineteenth century the Huguenots were moving on, replaced by the influx of Jews. Meanwhile the Protestant chapel was changing, first to the HQ for the Society for Propagating Christianity amongst the Jews and then as a Methodist Chapel. The propagation failed and, by the end of the nineteenth century, it had become a Synagogue and school run by a Lithuanian sect, displaced by the Tsarist pogroms.

It stayed a Synagogue and Torah school until the 1960s by which time the Jews had moved out, principally to North London and the Synagogue was abandoned. By the 1970s the East End was filling with immigrants from the former colonies in the Indian Subcontinent and the building converted to a Mosque – The London Jamme Masjid (‘Great Mosque’).

Who knows what’s next. Trekkies, perhaps? A place for Jedis? Or the followers of Dudeism?

Over time the building has seen many physical changes, too – now it boasts a rather stunning minaret – but one constant has been its sundial with the inscription: UMBRA SUMUS

We are but shadows

Somehow that seems to sum things up: the building is a beacon of light compared with we fickle and inconstant humans as we bumble around in the shadows; it has found a way to survive and get on – so should we.

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About TanGental

My name is Geoff Le Pard. Once I was a lawyer; now I am a writer. I've published four books - Dead Flies and Sherry Trifle, My Father and Other Liars, Salisbury Square and Buster & Moo. In addition I have published three anthologies of short stories and a memoir of my mother. More will appear soon. I will try and continue to blog regularly at geofflepard.com about whatever takes my fancy. I hope it does yours too.
These are my thoughts and no one else is to blame. If you want to nab anything I post, please acknowledge where it came from.

12 Responses to Upcycling buildings: if only it was as easy with people

My favourite quote from Anne Lamont is “One hundred years time? All new people”
and perhaps another expresses the current hijacking of religion in current power games:
“You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

I love this post, Geoff and bravo for saying what you think in a measured way of course – And being in total agreement with you, like ever more to discover these on-line relationships born of the exchange of a few words actually illustrate a subconscious connection through ‘like minds’ – Its fascinating that ‘gut feel’ works through a few typed characters and not only with processing by the physical senses.

I also think a lot of climate change posturing is simply about power – another band wagon politicians and environmentalists alike have sought to hijack – but don’t get me started..

Thank you Lisa. It is always a delicate process to put yourself ‘out there’. And good to know it chimes with someone. Did you see my little sonnet on Saturday on climate change? Does it invoke sympathy or a snort of contempt i wonder? !!

I love the quote about creating God in your own image! So true!
I also agree with you about the collection of like-minds. It is a lovely, caring, supportive group to which we belong. We’re all in it together and should, as Geoff says, just get along! (That’s what we teach the kids at school.)

Oh, Geoff, I loved the mosque in Cordoba, so thanks for the reminder. And I wouldn’t apologise for being political – I guess our politics are part of who we are which you’re sharing on this blog. On which point, a nice taste here of your personal family history alongside cultural changes in Britain. It’s interesting here as buildings are converted into mosques, I’m presuming for the first time, which might be uncomfortable for some people. But wasn’t it interesting in our recent elections that the gains made by UKIP were primarily in the areas that were less ethnically diverse. Often people are more afraid of the unfamiliar, especially as some of the press feeds into these anxieties and ignorance. I’ve never been to Brick Lane (although I have read the novel, which was ace), but lots of cities have similar areas which are often lively and with excellent restaurants. I’m always excited when I go to Leicester for the food!
Whether you think group conflicts are due to religion depends what you think religion is. I think many religions have contradictory elements: a set of values that generally support people to live moral lives, alongside a tribal element with a hierarchy controlling the resources and cultivating a suspiciousness of outsiders in order to control the minions.
Thanks for another interesting post, but struggling to keep up with your output!

Great post, Geoff. I really enjoyed reading the history – had some story and not many dates to regurgitate! The melting pot is a very interesting concept. It seems to work better for some than others. I agree with you that we should all just get along. Why try to inflict one’s limiting ideas upon another? We used to say the sky is the limit. That’s no longer true. Instead of imposing limitations we should be extending possibilities, positive possibilities. But then, that’s just my opinion!

Great post. I didn’t know about the Huguenots in London. It’s curious how religious buildings or spaces, tend to locate on the same spot, time after time, as if the spots themselves were sacred.
I have been awarded with the Liebster Award, and I was wondering if you’d like me to nominate you. If you accept it you can pass it on to as many or as few as you like. Tell me what you think. 🙂